As 2011 is set to be a strong year for capital expenditure the book-to-bill ratio should increase as the year progresses. However, since July, 2010 the ratio has shown a downward trend until SEMI released the latest book-to-bill figures for North America-based semiconductor equipment suppliers. February figures could mark the turning point for an upward trend as SEMI reported a book-to-bill of 0.87, up from 0.85 in January, 2011. Orders received, reached US$1.58 billion in February, up 4.7% compared to the final January 2011 figure of US$1.51 billion.
"Billings increased for the third month in a row, while bookings improved over 4 percent from the figure reported in January," noted Dan Tracy, senior director of Industry Research & Statistics. "February bookings are over 25 percent higher than the bookings reported one year ago."
The three-month average of worldwide billings in February 2011 was US$1.83 billion. The billings figure is 2.3% more than the final January 2011 level of US$1.79 billion, and is 79.8% more than the February 2010 billings level of US$1.02 billion.